World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus, at 5,642 m, is the highest point in Europe. Kosciuszko is Australia's highest, McKinley (Denali) North America's and Aconcagua South America's.

Answer: B

A solstice occurs when the sun reaches its greatest angular distance from the equator - about 23.5° north on 21 June and 23.5° south on 22 December. Those days carry the longest and shortest daylight of the year, but the defining feature is the sun's extreme declination.

Answer: B

The Kuril Islands form a chain between the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka and the Japanese island of Hokkaido, so they lie between Japan and Russia. Sovereignty over the southern islands remains disputed between the two countries.

Answer: D

Indonesia has about 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country, because it sits where three tectonic plates converge along the Pacific Ring of Fire. The Philippines is also volcanic but has far fewer.

Answer: B

Lakes hold the great bulk of the world's liquid surface fresh water - far more at any moment than all the rivers combined, since river water is constantly in transit to the sea. Oceans are salt water and canals are man-made.

Answer: B

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, with more than 17,000 islands spread over some 5,000 km. The Philippines is second with about 7,600.

Answer: A

Above the glacier surface the valley sides are exposed to repeated freezing and thawing, so water in the rock joints expands as it freezes and prises the rock apart. This is frost shattering, and it supplies the debris that falls onto the ice as scree.

Answer: D

Immediately beneath the crust lies the outer mantle, separated from the crust by the Mohorovicic discontinuity. Below it come the inner mantle and then the outer and inner cores.

Answer: C

Hot and cold deserts together cover roughly one third of the earth's land surface. The cold deserts of Antarctica and the Arctic account for a large part of that total, which is why the figure is higher than most people expect.

Answer: C

The sun's infrared radiation is absorbed mainly by carbon dioxide and water vapour, the two principal greenhouse gases. Both have molecular vibrations at infrared frequencies, and together they account for most of the natural greenhouse effect.